Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Cards for Him Blog Hop

Hello there and welcome to the Cards for Him Blog Hop!

Catherine has a brand new online class, featuring ideas and techniques for how to make great masculine cards! I don't know about you, but this has always been a struggle for me. I love my bright colors, my ribbons, buttons, flowers, etc. This class is going to be SO helpful, I can't wait to play with all the new techniques and ideas!

Our newest online class “Cards For Him” is now open for registration! This is perfectly timed for Father’s Day which is right around the corner, but of course is great for masculine card ideas year-round.

We've joined forces with some of the companies and their designers that have products featured in our class for a Blog Hop to celebrate our newest release. There are TEN FREE class registrations hidden along the hop, so make sure you leave comments along the way.

The more comments you make, the greater your chances are for winning!

You have until 11:59 pm on May 2nd to leave a comment to be entered to win! Winners will be announced at on May 3rd on Catherine's Blog.

Here's a card I created using the "texture" techniques shared in the class.

With Father's Day right around the corner, I thought I'd take this opportunity to get ahead of the game and make my Dad's card! I started by making my card base and then cut another piece of kraft cardstock to 4 x 5.25 inches. I slathered a thick layer of Wendy Vecchi's white texture paste and let it dry for a few minutes, but not so long as to make it completely harden. I took out my Whole Lotta Dots set by Reverse Confetti and stamped it directly into the texture paste. It's a real shame that I ended up covering most of the dots because it looked SO AWESOME! You can still see a bit of the stamping in texture paste between the vellum sentiment panel and that hinge on the top.

Make sure you clean the stamp off right away, don't want any of that paste to dry on and potentially ruin your precious stamp! Next step was to spray the piece with some Dylusions inks. I love these things, and you can tell I went a little nuts with it ;)

I got out some chipboard letters and, with glossy accents, glued them together to form the word "Dad" vertically. Actually, before I glued them, I distressed them with Tea Dye distress inks. The hinges are from Tim Holtz. They come in a regular chipboard color, so I added some paints and inking, and then sanded them a bit to age them. I still didn't quite get the color I wanted, but I still quite like how they turned out!

Next up, I had to figure out a way to add "Happy Father's Day" without covering too much of my card. Solution: Reverse Confetti's Lighthearted Letters to the rescue! I stamped them in a straight line (well, straight enough anyway lol) on a piece of vellum, trimmed the piece down to just the letters, and then inked the edges. I added a glue dot to each end of the sentiment and wrapped it around to the other side of the kraft panel so I didn't have to try to figure out how to adhere it on the front and not have adhesive showing.

That's all I have to share today! I think I'm going to need to try out some other techniques now that I tried this texture technique. Once you get the hang of masculine cards, it gets a little easier (just don't grab your girly buttons or ribbon, in fact lock them away so you're not tempted, haha!)

Ready for the blog hop list? Grab a cup of coffee and buckle up! You are in for a treat, we've got tons of inspiration in store for you! Next up after me is Lisa Henke!!

I had to zoom in on this photo so I could really check out all the yummy detail! OMGosh, I LOVE all the grunge and distressing, and what a great way to get the sentiment in. Gorgeous! (I'm a big fan of Dylusions, too!!!) :)